Guild Wars 2 : Random Question Thread

[Arelian]

There will be no adamn hauberks or dalmaticas. Everyone is indeed on a level playing field no matter how many dungeons they have cleared. Your shinies will mean something when people look at you and go, "Oh damn, that person cleared X dungeon Y amount of times to get that sweet gear!" Raising stats by 0.5% is boring.

[barber2006]

So would it be fair to say the reward of pve is aesthetics and the reward of pvp is bragging rights? It sounds like you could do either exclusively without penalty to your effectiveness in the other if you so choose?

[Azull]

gear does contain stats but the stats are transferable to diff looking gear by combining them. Stats wise it seems to be more or less the opposite of say... d3 where 99% of what your charactor is at 60 is the stats on your gear

[Imitarate]

It's not really accurate to say there's no gear to get; some gear is going to have different bonus stats than others, and there's a whole mess of runes, glyphs, gems and the like to enhance gear, weapons, and accessories. It's just that there's no one way of getting them that's any better than any other. The point of doing an instance isn't getting those things, it's getting outfits that look a certain way -- they might have specific stats you want, but it's never going to be stats you can't get somewhere else.

[barber2006]

I guess at the heart of my questions is this: if a friend of mine plays 10 hours a day, I play two hours a day, and two more friends play once a week.......when we party together for a boss fight/raid/etc, how much more effective will my buddy which puts in 10 hrs a day be compared to the rest of us? 0%? 2%? 10%? This is assuming max level for that particular fight. I reordered but both betas were both on calculus test weekends so im more in the dark than I want to be.

[tol]

0%, he might look a whole lot cooler though depending on what you find aesthetically pleasing.

[Alderaan]

Remember that you're probably going to want multiple gear sets so you can rune them differently, so there's plenty of gear to get.

[Dragir]

I guess at the heart of my questions is this: if a friend of mine plays 10 hours a day, I play two hours a day, and two more friends play once a week.......when we party together for a boss fight/raid/etc, how much more effective will my buddy which puts in 10 hrs a day be compared to the rest of us? 0%? 2%? 10%? This is assuming max level for that particular fight. I reordered but both betas were both on calculus test weekends so im more in the dark than I want to be.

Whoever among the four of you makes the most intelligent choices will be the most effective. This includes your runes/insignias setup, your traits, and how you put all of that into action. <3

[Kachiko]

It still seems kind of hypothesis heavy right now; sure, the devs have stated what they wanted to design, but until we're lvl 80, we're not really going to know how well all of the different combinations/options/gear will evolve too. Not to mention, because you have all of those options, you're going to have to put a lot of time into your character to develop it to the point where you can be most useful. Someone who's lvl 80, has all of his weapon skills, and a full set of traits/skills is going to have a lot more options than someone who's lvl 40, with only their favorite weapons trained, and half the skills/traits gained, who both go into a lvl 30 instance (just an example), even if their gear is still equivalent. With all of the various options available, it's almost overwhelming how much you have available to do, which isn't a bad thing for a game to have. Still, time is money, friend, and money is power, as they say, and that's really going to be your main measurement, for some time, of how well your character can perform.

[Rhyis.]

You max all your weapon skills at level 10.

[Kachiko]

Yes, but you still need to train the weapon; I didn't get a great sword till lvl 10, as Mesmer, and I still had to take the time to level it up to unlock all of my skills. It didn't take a lot of time, but the point being that, as an example of a variable comparing one person, who has spent the time to unlock all of their WS, vs someone who hasn't, is going to be more versatile, hence more powerful, then someone who doesn't and is less useful in a given situation.

[Takiwaki]

Yes, but you still need to train the weapon; I didn't get a great sword till lvl 10, as Mesmer, and I still had to take the time to level it up to unlock all of my skills. It didn't take a lot of time, but the point being that, as an example of a variable comparing one person, who has spent the time to unlock all of their WS, vs someone who hasn't, is going to be more versatile, hence more powerful, then someone who doesn't and is less useful in a given situation.

I am not really understanding this "taking your time to unlock your weapons skills" thing. I mean you just get a weapon and use it while you play, its not like you are going out of your way. At level 15 I had all my weapons unlocked without even trying. It may or may not take much time to become a very effective player because of how the battle system is, its very player dependent not time dependent. Obviously a level 80 will have much more tools, elites and traits, but by level 30 you should be able to do more or less what a level 80 can. How well a character can perform depends mostly on the player and not the time spent, I really have to disagree with the level 80 vs the level 40 character, especially when getting to level 80 takes no time in this game also. Traits do add alot of variety so does gear but as far as what basic skills do the usefulness of a character at level 40 is not any less than one at level 80, because in the end its how you use the skills, not what skills you have. This is something anet has pushed from the very beginning.

For example a shit player at level 80 failing a dungeon over and over but a level 40 runs the exact same dungeon with less unlocked skills, and maybe even only using 2 weapons unlocked, why? because the level 40 understand how to use his skills much better and has geared and traited to make the best out of it. This is the reason PvP works, as the battle systems is tied to player skill much more than stats, gear, or abilities unlocked

[Rhyis.]

The difference between a level 40 and a level 80 isn't particularly impressive. Unless you messed up your skills, you'll have identical skill bar and weapon skill options. Only difference is bonus attributes from trait points, and minor/major traits within the trees. Otherwise, there's really not a whole lot of improvement.

[Drafted]

Are there rewards for finishing the story mode? Also, how far does the story mode go? <- In terms of leveling.

[Gokulo]

I think it's supposed to go up to level 80 and lead you to Orr - the end game area.

[niwaar]

Are there rewards for finishing the story mode? Also, how far does the story mode go? <- In terms of leveling.

They have said the story mode will run through to level 80. It will not be unlike XI where the story will be more race/city centric and branch in and out of the "world view" as you level.

As for rewards, we have seen only up to the level 20 missions, so its hard to tell what we will get at higher levels. Early on the story missions have given us non-magical weapons, armor as well as 4 slot bags and most importantly cash shop items. The Cash Shop items received from the BWE story modes has included Mystic Keys and the Bank Access Golem.

[Arcana]

Personal story will likely reward a Max level item & probably vendors for crafting plans and such, similar to GW campaigns did. story will take you to your max level and skill points beyond 80 cap too, the majority of the experience you will get will be from dynamic events leading to your personal story instances though.

[Drafted]

I noticed this while playing. Specifically pvp more so than pve.

Sometimes you exit combat immediately after getting away from a fight and other times you stay in combat for fucking years it seems as you slowly make your way to the next contested point on the map.

Anyone have any info on it?

[Ohemgee]

Anyone else experiencing an issue when pre-purchasing with Paypal?

[Zerocool]

Just want to reiterate a bit on what people have already said. Gear is actually very important. Anyone that has played in sPvP can tell you that. But the actual process of gear isn't as big of a deal as it is in other MMOs. You won't be spending months or years to get the gear with the best stats on it. The gear with the best stats will be relatively easy to acquire and can be obtained in different ways, be it crafting, drops, karma vendors, Dynamic Event chests, etc. What you'll be working hard for is gear with equivalent stats to what you already have, but will look a lot cooler. This really only applies to PvE and WvW though, as in sPvP everyone gets all the same gear for free as soon as you enter to create a level playing field.

So gear is important, just don't expect to have to grind endlessly for months and months to get the best stuff. How you spec your gear, your build, and how well you play your class are more important though.